The Terran Legion
by East Bridge
Summary: In a world of sword and sorcery, the technologically advanced civilization rises, a machine race called the Terran. It is a clash of civilizations, Marines against warriors, wizards against Crucio Siege Tank. It won't even be a fight, not until the gods come. When that happens, the galaxy will circle the drain, but then it all have to end sometime.
1. Chapter 1

_Author's Note: New story, everyone. As always, I am going to take more than a few liberties with the Terran. I will be stealing aspects from a slew of video games and movies—Terminator, Section 8, Stargate Atlantis, so on and so forth. It should be fun._

**Chapter 1: Awakening**

Within a small house of wood, a young man lied upon his cot. The outfit of coarse wool that he was wearing was soaked with sweat. His black hair was matted to his skull; eyes tightly shut. Despite his agony, his body lied in absolute stillness, and his face seemed almost peaceful. Two set of memories swirled together in his head, colliding against each other as they meld together in an attempt to find a state of equilibrium.

One set of memories was of a young man of eighteen who had grew up in a small town called Lixin in the Hauwin Province in the People's Republic of China of Earth. The memories of Earth were from a young man named Sky ti Huan. As far as Sky knew, his parents, Stone and Snow, were among the most normal people in the world; his mother work from home as an accountings for a couple of the local business, while his father fixed mopeds for a living. Beside him, his Earth parents had another daughter, a shy, sickly little girl of sixteen named Iris, after the flower.

The other set of memories was of this body, the one called Ashur, also eighteen and the son of a nobleman and one of his servant girls in the minor kingdom called Lira on a world named Devin (Devin territories are divided into three classes from low to high as follow: Sovereign States, Kindoms, Empires. It should be note that there could be a large gap in both power and territory even within the same territory class). Because of his mother status, the family of the nobleman and the nobleman himself saw Ashur as inferior, a stain upon their illustrious lineage. Even the servants looked down on him even though technically he was noble-born, and his mother, blamed for his birth, was given the hardest and most demeaning jobs. After years of being neglected and abuse, Ashur's mother had taken him and fled the capital city when Ashur was five. They had settled in a small village called Vina on the southeastern edge of the kingdom. Here, Ashur's mother, Lia, had fallen in love with one of the local hunters named Kanus. Together, they had two children, a boy named Namus and a girl name Ana.

Beside the two set of memories, there was something else, something that Ashur/Sky instinctively knew as the Core. What is it a database of? He hadn't a clue. At the moment, the Core was keeping to itself inside a corner of his mind, seemingly content to act as an observer as the two consciousnesses struggled.

He didn't know how long it took, but after a time, the memories beyond to settle, fitting together like an unbelievably complex puzzle. He was both Ashur and Sky, and yet more than both. In the next moment, his mind connected with the Core. It was a curious sensation. He felt like a computer, coming online for the first time and connecting to the internet. That, of course, was strange in and of itself since he hadn't a clue how a computer would feel, even if it could feel.

With an exhale, his eyes opened.

His mind was not the only aspect of him that had been transformed. He felt a power unlike anything he had felt before, surging through his veins. He felt…perfect; he didn't know how else to describe it.

The most dominant change he could notice at the moment was his sight. His eyes were exponentially better than either of his lifetime. He could see the roof above, all of it, every facet, every detail. Every flaw.

The Americans on Earth had a saying—God is in the details. He used to not give the saying a second thought, but now, he was inclined to agree. Even the flaws were mesmerizing. There seemed to be a beauty to the chaos, a silent grace to that random anarchy.

While his eyes see, his mind analyzed and calculated. A thousand bit of information flowed into his brain. He could see how many types of vegetables were dried and brought together to make the roof. He could see the age of the roof, and how much longer it would last. He could calculate how much weight it could bear, how strong a wind it could take, which part was strongest, which was weakest. His mind automatically calculated how to shore up all the weak parts, how to strengthen the entire roof.

All of it, seeing the roof and its flaws, all the calculations, all the analyzing, it all happened in a fragment of a moment. He might have spent a few seconds upon that roof, simply reveling in his new ability, but a voice interrupted him.

"You're ok."

It was a woman, her voice filled with shock, relief, and fading tears. It was a familiar voice, at least to the Ashur in him.

"Mom?" he said, turning to her.

Despite that half of him recognized someone else as mother, his affection for her was undeniable and unshakable, and the word left his mouth naturally.

"Yes, it's me," she whispered, her eyes filled with new tears, and she reached out to cradle his face.

His Devin mother was only in her mid-thirties but years of hard labor when they were living living with Ashur's birth father had added a good decade to her physical body. Ashur could see numerous minor ailments to every system in her body. Skin, flesh, organs, bones, nothing was untouched by the abused she had endure. Her body could still hold up but in another decade? Ashur couldn't be sure.

Still, despite the toll of her life, her beauty was still noticeable. Ashur could only imagine how much more vibrant she was in her youth. He would give her back her youth. As the scientist in one of the older American television series had said, he had the technologies.

Standing behind his mother was a one-arm, rugged man with dark eyes and short red hair. He stood over six feet tall with broad shoulders and over a hundred and fifty pounds of muscle.

"How are you still alive?" the man said.

There was a moment of silent before Ashur spoke. "It's nice to see you too, dad."

The man was Kanus, and while he was not Ashur's biological father, he was more of a father to him than his actual father was. The man had raise him, taught him how to hunt, how to shoot, how to fight, how to protect his family.

"A man isn't a man unless he was strong enough to protect those who are dear to him, or die trying." That was he had taught Ashur since even before he became romantically involved with Lia, and he wasn't the kind of men who couldn't act in accordance with his word. A few years ago, on a hunting trip, he had lost his arm protecting Ashur.

"Kanus," Lia said, frowning at her husband.

"I'm sorry," Kanus said, "but he was shot in the heart."

A flicker of memories in Ashur's head confirmed his words. Though Vina was part of the Lira kingdom, like many other small village and settlements, it was too remote to fall under the protection of the crown. Out here, they were on their own, forced to pitch their feeble power against the might of nature but also the greed and lust of their own kinds.

The arrow that had pierced his heart was the result of a group of bandits attacking Lira. The attack of the bandits was an oddity. Though the whole of Lira contained less than fifty families with a population that was barely above one hundred, it was a hunter settlement and thus boasted a considerable number of combat-capable people, virtually everyone having learned how to shoot a bow. This resulted in the settlement remaining virtually unmolested by the various group of outlaws that roamed the remote regions of the kingdom.

The attack of the bandits had been a bit of a surprise. Still, the denizens of Lira, protected by their crude wooden battlement put up a very effective defense. After an afternoon of fighting, there had only been a few injuries on the part of the villager. The battle was drawing toward its end when a stray arrow had slipped through a miniscule hole in the wooden wall, more or less threading the needle, and struck Ashur in the chest. The last thing he did before he lost consciousness was to wonder what he did to piss god off so much.

As for how Sky got to inhabit this body, the last memories in Sky's consciousness was a flash of light in the sky. He suspected that it was a bolt of lightning but there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Coincidently, the last thought Sky had was to wonder why the Jade Palace's Duke of Thunder was pissed at him.

"How long have I been out?" Ashur asked.

"A day," Lia said.

"What happened after I fell?" he asked.

Kanus answered, "We won."

Ashur eyed his father. "You don't look like we've won."

Kanus and Lia exchanged a glance before he spoke, "One of the surviving bandits said that they would be back. We don't think his threat was emptied." He hesitated. "The bandit also stated that they are of the Blood Talon."

Ashur's eyes flickered. The Blood Talon was an extremely powerful group of outlaw. Boasting near a thousand strong, their power rivaled that of many earldoms. (Devin utilizes a medieval-like system of noble titles. From lowest to high: knight, baron, earl, duke, and archduke.)

There were even rumors that the Blood Talon was led by a Master-class warrior. For peasants like them, a Master class was no different than a god. (Devin has many professions such as Wizard, Warrior, Archer, Assassin, Thief, so on and so forth. They are collectively known as the Gifted. All the Gifted are divided into several classes. From lowest to highest: Apprentice, Adept, Elite, Master, Grandmaster, and Emperor. Each class has nine levels. It should also be note that there are two classes above Emperor that will be mentioned later in the story.)

To make thing worse, the Blood Talon was notoriously cruel. If the settlement they were raiding simply submit, then that would be that, but if any resistance were shown, then they would wipe out the entire settlement, selling some settlers into slavery and killing the rest.

"I'll take care of it," Ashur said after a moment.

"What are you talking about?" Lia said. "You wield neither Magic nor Radiance. How can you possibly 'take care' of a Master?"

Radiance was a force wielded by the physical combat classes. It was a system of energy that allowed classes such as warrior and archer to transcend their physical limitation and attain superhuman power. It was call Radiance for the signature glow that its user emitted in battle.

Of course, Ashur now possessed something far more powerful than either Magic or Radiance, but he didn't argue with his mother. The only thing close to the technologies he now commanded was the ancient gnomish civilization of legend and he was a good ten thousand years ahead of them. It wasn't something he could explain to his mother, however. He supposed that there was no choice but to just…do.

"In any case," Ashur said. "I need to take a bath. I'm covered in gunk."

He turned his arm and grimaced. He could feel the grime all over his body. He knew where it came from. Part of his transformation was the appearance of billions of nanites that saturated his every corner of his body. It was the nanites that had repaired his heart. Afterward, they had rebuilt his body to its ideal state. The gunk was all the contamination in his body.

Lia startled. "I…I didn't even notice."

"How could you not notice? I stink enough to choke the sun."

"You just came back from the dead. How you smell is of rather low important."

"Not to me, Mother," Ashur said, getting out of bed. He glanced at the stain cot and muttered, "We might have to burn the sheet."

Worried, Lia followed her son out of the house. Her husband walked by her side. They occasionally traded glances, the relief and concern in the gaze mirroring each other. They were glad that their eldest son had survived, but his, for lack of a better word, resurrection had them worried. Ashur still felt like their son, but he seemed different. There seemed to be an air of power to him and an atmosphere or regality to the way he carried himself.

As they walked through the village, there were hushed whispered of shock and fear. Many of the villagers had seen him struck in the heart by the arrow, and being the only fatality of the battle, everyone in the village had heard that he had died. Seeing him up and walking about was more or less like seeing a ghost.

As they headed for the gate that led out of the village diminutive figures rushed toward them. It was a boy of ten and a girl of eight, both with fiery red hairs and exceptionally adorable faces, at least to his eyes.

"Big brother, big brother," the boy called. "You're alive."

Before he could answer, both of them through ran up and threw their arms around him, the boy hugging him by the waist while the eight-year-old clutched at his leg. In the next moment, they both recoiled from him.

"Ew, you stink," the eight-year-old said, clasping her little hands over her nose.

"I know. I'm heading to the river."

He smiled reassuringly at them, but his smile was weak when he noticed the little bow in his little brother's hands. It was his bow, and it was too big for the ten years old boy, who was barely above three and a half feet.

On earth, most ten-year-olds barely grasped the concept of death; on Devin, he already knew how and was ready to take a life. Under the threat of the Blood Talon, Namus had probably taken Ashur's place on the battlement. Ana, being a girl and a bit younger, had probably spent all day making arrows. Such was the life of peasants in a small town on Devin; Ashur knew this. He was beginning to hate this stupid planet.

Their little group left the village. Lia and Kanus dropping behind slightly while Namus and Ana trailed slightly closer to Ashur, though not that close.

About fifty yards from the west gate of the village there was a stream about five yards across. This was the village primary source of water. Ashur took off his shirt and entered the river, letting the water wash away all the grime on his body. He stayed neared the shore, where it was shallow enough that he could sit on the ground while keeping his head above water.

After about five seconds, Ana and Namus joined him in the water, chasing and splashing each other. It was one of the wonder of youth; they lived from moment to moment, giving little thought to the past or future.

Ashur didn't have that luxury. While he was still young, according to the information in his head, he was now the Supreme Commander of the Terran, the governing will of the entire civilization, as important to the Terran as the Overmind was to the Zerg.

The Terran, one of the three races of the Starcraft universe, standing with the Zerg and Protoss as the three dominant species of the Milky Way galaxy. While the Terran was arguably the weakest of the three races, it was a testament to their ingenuity that they hadn't been wipe out by the Zerg. More than that, the Terran he now commanded was only based on the Starcraft universe Terran. From a cursory glance at the information in the database available to him, the Terran he commanded was a civilization of pure machine far more advanced than the Starcraft Terran.

In any case, he couldn't afford to live in the moment. Sooner or later, the Terran would come to light on Devin. Conflict would be inevitable. Worst case scenario, a worldwide war would break out and he would be forced to crush the entire planet beneath the boot of the Terran. It was not a future he was shooting for.

Ashur sighed and dipped his head beneath the water, washing the sludge from his face. He had such a long road ahead of him. It was a glorious road, but it was going to take years. He could only guess how panicked his Earth parents were. If it took even fifty years for him to get back to Earth, he would never be able to forgive himself.

Ashur raised his head out of the water and exhaled. There were so many things to do, and the damnable Blood Talon was being an incredible annoyance. He had the power to crush them, but it would probably delay his first Command Center by almost ten days. Problem was he didn't have a choice; he couldn't very well let any of the people in the village come to harm. Even if he could be that callus, his mother would chew him into little pieces.

He glanced at the shore, where his parents stood watching him and his siblings, but mostly him, in concern. They looked exhausted, especially his mother. His sister had mention that his mother had been crying all day yesterday, and from his analysis, neither of his parents had slept in forty hours.

"Mom, dad, go home. You two looked dead on your feet. I'm fine. I'm not going to drop dead or disappear," Ashur said.

There was a few seconds of silent while Kanus debated Ashur's words before he led Lia toward the village. The woman made a few protest but they were rather feeble; she was very tired.

Night languished in the water. Part of his mind was contemplating and refining all the necessary details and plans for the birth of the Terran civilization. The rest of his mind was keeping tab on his siblings. With his nano-enhanced mind, it was a simple thing for him to multitask. As it was, his brain had far more computing power than the most advance supercomputer on Earth.

After a bit of time, his younger brother ventured close and was staring at him.

"What?" Ashur said.

"You're pretty," he said, "like a girl."

Ashur knew the reason for Namus' surprise; the nanites had all but remade him. Muscles, skins, skeletal structure, all had been optimized, giving his body flawless symmetry. He knew that his younger brother did not mean it as an insult but it certainly sounded like one.

"Thanks for that," Ashur drawled.

Namus shrugged and returned to playing, diving underneath the water to chase after fishes. Ashur smiled. It took so little to entertain younglings. Though he had seen only a few years, the burden of knowledge made him feel as though as he had seen centuries. Little fishes in a small brook could not interest him anymore; he wanted all the stars in the heaven. Not to possess them, there would be no point to that; he wanted to see them.

He gave them ten more minutes before ushering his siblings back toward the village. They arrived to find the village's gate tightly shut, and their parents having a heated argument with the people on top of the wall.

"What's going on?" Ashur said as he drew closer.

"They won't let us in the village," Kanus said. "They said your mother sold her soul to Azalus to bring you back from the dead.

Azalus was the death god of Devin. He was the equivalent of Lucifer, and making a deal with him was a very serious offense.

"That's ridiculous," Ashur said, turning to his mother. "Right? You didn't, did you?"

"Of course not," Lia said. She paused. "While I am more than willing to trade my life for your, I couldn't bring that kind of evil into our home and risk Namus and Ana." The anger she felt at the villagers vanished, and she turned a remorseful gaze at her first born. "I'm sorry."

"It's nothing to apologize for, mother," Ashur said. "I wouldn't want you to risk them." He looked upward at the people on the wall. "The accusation against my mother is baseless and foolish. You all heard it; my mother has a pretty good defense against her selling her soul."

There was a moment of silent followed by heated whispers from atop the battlement.

"Do you think we think we would take your words for it?" a loud voice called from above. "You are of the dead, unclean, and we will not allow you near our family."

Ashur's eyes narrowed. "Wait a minute, I know that voice. Saldan, you overgrown little rodent, this is your doing."

Saldan was the strongest hunter in the village, a title that used to belong to Kanus before he lost his arm. When Lia first arrive at the village, both of them had vied for her affection; Saldan had lost. Angry that she did not chose him, his attraction to Lia quickly turned bitter. Since then, he had went out of his way to make things difficult for her entire family.

Whenever something went wrong, he always found a way to blame someone from Ashur's family. If a hunter got hurt, it must have been Kanus let his guard down and failed his obligation. Whenever something went missing, Ashur, Namus, or Ana must have stolen it. Every time they divided the spoils of their hunting trip, he had deserved more while Kanus and his family had deserved less, because Kanus had only one arm and was a burden to their group, never mind that his skill with traps oftentimes result in bigger and more frequent kill.

It was beyond petty and vindictive. Unfortunately, because of his strength, he held considerable influence in the village. It was the nature of the people of Devin; they gravitated toward strength, and those weaker tended to follow the cues of those stronger than them.

From above the wall, a face whose jaw Ashur had dreamed of breaking for years poked out. "Take your family and go, boy. It is a mercy that we let your family leave unharmed."

Ashur's face darkened. "Is this the decision of everyone in the village?"

A flicker of power laced his voice, carrying his words to the ear of everyone on the battlement.

"Of course it is," Saldan answered him, and it wasn't difficult for Ashur to hear the poorly hidden smugness in his voice.

Ashur remained silent. He wanted to give Vina one last chance. If one voice speak out for his family, that was all he need not to write off the village entirely, but no one spoke.

"As you wish." Ashur sighed. Part of him was holding out hope. He turned to his family. "Let's go."

Without even realizing it, he had assumed the role of the head of the family in all but name. Of course, it was not unusual. Kanus was forty-one. The life-expectancy of peasants on Devin was in the mid to late forties. Even in Vina, where everyday life was not as hard as it was in the city, the life-expectancy was in the early fifties at best. It would be expected for Ashur, being the eldest male member of the family to assume a leadership role of the family.

Fortunately, Kanus wasn't the kind to cling to the position of the head of the family, more than happy to step back. He was strong and silent type, being much more comfortable to remain in the background, ready to step forth when his family came under threat. Used to be, he would only speak once every few days. Once, when Ashur was nine, Kanus spent two and a half month without saying word. Ashur had very nearly forgotten what Kanus' voice sounded like. That he had spoken so much this particular day was a relatively large oddity, but then, Ashur did technically came back from the dead.

Ashur led his family away from the village. About a twenty minutes walk from Vina, there was a relatively large grove of tree. Ashur used to play at the grove when he was young, before responsibility made his life a bit more hectic than he would like. Because the grove had very few wild animals and fruit bearing tree, it was largely overlooked by the village, but it was a special place for Ashur and, in recent years, his brother and sister.

He had chosen the grove as the site of the Terran's arrival on this world.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Cameron**

They arrived at the grove and settled inside a small clearing. Ashur spent the next hour commanding the nanites inside of him to spin several hundred feet of microscopic razor wires. He set up a perimeter around the clearing, stretching the razor wire from tree to tree like spider web. Though Ashur could make the wire so thin they would all but invisible, he thickened the strand enough that they caught the light, shimmering in the afternoon light like threads of silver. He left only one opening between two trees free of the wire, making it the only way in and out of the clearing.

"Ok, guys, pay attention," Ashur said to his family after all was said and done. They had been watching him curiously as he went about his work. "These wires are going to be our preliminary line of defense for the next ten to fifteen days."

He held up a stone the size of his fist and hurled it into the tree. The stone hit one of the wires, and it went through the stone like a knife through a block of tofu, the surface as smooth as glass. Ashur's family stared at the two stones which used to be one, completely stunned.

"As you can see, the wires are very sharp," Ashur continued. "So do not touch them." He gesture at the area without wire. "That's the only entrance to this clearing so remember it well." He turned to his brother and sister. "For the immediate future, try not to wander about at night. I don't want to wake up to find you two in pieces on the ground."

Lia paled at the idea and pulled her two children closer, holding them both tightly by their arms.

Ashur held up his right hand and a small silvery puddle formed in his palm. He dropped it onto the ground where it slowly began to grown an expanded.

It was a colony of nanites, working under his order to form a large tent of nanite-fiber for his family. Winter was very near, and considering the fact that Kingdom of Lira was located in the deep in the northern hemisphere of Devin, the temperature dropped very low at night. To spend the night out in the open could be lethal. Thankfully, he could expend a couple of Quantum Energy to create a temporary shelter.

Quantum Energy was the lifeblood of the Terran; it was the real life equivalent to minerals and vespene gas in the game. When he awoke, whoever had bestowed him the Terran also gave him a reserve of one thousand QE. The nanites inside of him could also absorb the ambient energy in the atmosphere and converted it into Quantum Energy. His rang was only about a dozen yard, which only yield about a hundred QE per day. So far, the nanites inside of him had converted about a dozen QE.

A nanite-fabric tent cost ten QE, a very small price considering the fact that such a tent would be more advance than the most sophisticated building on earth. Once formed, the nanite-fabric would be tough enough to withstand the heaviest of bombardment, even to the point of being able to protect those inside from small nukes. The fabric would be able to absorb sunlight and electricity and convert it into energy. The fabric would also be able to absorb or generate heat as needed. It also neutralized pollens, absorbed radiations and pollutions, drawing in carbon and releasing oxygen. The tent itself would be able to maintain a stable climate, independent of its surrounding. All of these functions were just a small part of the nanite-fabric's arsenal.

It was the nanites. Nanite-fabric were, as its name suggested, fabric form from nanites, and the nanites that Ashur commanded could work together to do anything. They were more or less godlike. As a matter of fact, the eventual evolution of the Terran was a pure nanites civilization, one governed by Ashur's will. The only reason that the earlier stages of the Terran were not pure nanites was due to cost.

When it came to nanites, it was all about mass. According to the database, for Ashur to create a Crucio Siege Tank, which weight over eighty tons, he would need an amount of nanites of equal weights, and the cost of eighty tons of nanites was over half a billion QE. If he wanted to form a massive complex like the Terran Command Center, the cost was so high that it made him want to puke.

It was simply more cost effective to make a regular, albeit obscenely advanced, building.

Of course, Ashur could use the Quantum Energy available to him to 'grow' a Command Center. Unfortunately, unlike in the game, it would take nearly ten days for the nanites to build a Command Center, and even then, he couldn't be sure how the Command Center's defense would fare against the Gifted of Devin.

It was a lack of information; he had no data on the combat abilities of the Gifted. What little he knew of them was from the memories of his childhood, and to the eyes of a child, the powers of the Gifted were simply godlike.

As tough as a Command Center was suppose to be, it was a complex designed for construction and there was a chance it might not be able to hold off Master-class Warrior. The most prudent course of action at the moment was to build a super weapon for protection. The Command Center would be delayed but it would be safer.

Ashur left the clearing and went into the forest. When he was far enough away that his family could not see, he formed another pool of nanites in his hand and deposited it on the ground. The nanites would multiply and formed into the weapon he needed in a few hours.

It was for his family's peace of mind that he did this out of sight. It was one thing for his nanites for weave a tent; it was something else entirely for them to see the nanites create a person. He felt that it would better for them to have a bit of time to adjust.

Ashur and Kanus spent the rest of the afternoon gathering provisions. Thought the grove did not have many fruit trees and it was close to winter, they managed to gather a little bit of fruits. Ashur even managed to capture a fowling, a chicken-like creature with no wings and four legs.

Just before the sun set, Ashur went to the river. He cut opened the fowling and removed its intestine but left the feathers. Though they didn't get a chance to take any utensil with them when they were forced out of Vina, it was a simple matter for him to for a small blade with his nanites. After washing the creature out, he peeled the fruits, cut it into small chunks and stuffed the creature. After it was done, he encased the fowling with the cleanest clay he could find. He had the nanites create a large silvery pitcher for the price of one one-thousandth of a unit of Quantum Energy and filled it with water.

With everything ready, he returned to the clearing. By the time of his return, the tent was finished, covering an area of ground a hundred feet in diameter. His family was milling about, staring at the silvery tent in wonder. Lia and Kanus were hovering near Namus and Ana. While Lia gazed upon the tent with interest, there was quite a bit of worry and fear in her eyes. None of them had entered the tent, mainly because the tent was all encasing and had no entrance, not until Ashur order the nanites to part and create an opening.

When he appeared, they all turned to him. Namus and Ana stared at him in admiration. Lia, on the hand, looked worried, but then, she was a mom; worrying seemed to be her natural state. Kanus was stoic.

"Where's the food?" Namus said. As captivated as the ten-year-old was the appearance of the tent, for the moment, he was more interested in food.

Ashur held up the block of clay. "In here. Go get some firewood—a lot of firewood."

Namus was more than eager and disappeared into the trees. He came back a bit later with an armful of twigs and small branches.

Ashur glanced at his brother. "Put that on the ground and go get some large logs."

It had been perfectly reasonable for Namus to gather smaller pieces of wood. Cooking in the wild, it was impractical to use big logs; they took too long to catch fire and burn for too long afterward. More than that, it was easier to control the heat in a small-twigs fire; you could add twigs or wait for a couple to burn out. In a log fire, once the flames burn, you were more or less committed.

In little time, they gathered enough wood. Ashur built a base with the smaller branches, placed the clay block onto it, and surrounded it with wood. He touched an index finger to one of the larger log and sent a spark of Quantum Energy into and the entire thing burst into flame, starling everyone.

Ashur sat down by the fire and beckoned his family. After a moment hesitation, they joined him around the fire, glancing between him and the fire. Ana was the first to speak.

"Are you a wizard?" she asked.

Ashur glanced at the eight-year-old from across the fire. It was not difficult for him to hear the note of hope in her voice. To the children of Devin—and more than a few adults—Magic was…well….magical. For Ana, if her big brother could wield Magic would simply be wondrous. She had no concept of how Magic would improve their status and their quality of life. She wanted Magic as she would want a colorful toy or candies.

"No, little sister." Ashur laughed softly. "I'm nothing so pedestrian."

Shocked silent answered him. Magic was a mark of nobility. A Radiance user had to be at least an Elite to acquire a knighthood, but as soon as it was determined that a child possessed the gift of Magic he/she was immediately given a title of nobility. A wizard was the Devin's equivalent to artillery. In time of war, a wizard behind a line of soldier could wreak havoc, and there was no shortage of war on this planet. To make them even more valuable, only one in every one hundred thousand people possessed the spark of Magic, compared to the one in every three hundred for Radiance wielder.

In any case, Magic wielders were more or less the ruling class of Devin, holding a very lofty social position in the planet's society. To hear anyone referred to a wizard as pedestrian was very close to blasphemy.

The silent dragged on. Ana seemed disappointed by his answer. Namus didn't care all that much. As for Kanus and Lia, they didn't know what to say to their eldest child.

None of them understood the import of his words, and Ashur didn't try to explain himself. His family would understand the wonder of the Terran in time.

"Why are we baking clay?" Namus said, breaking the silent.

"It's a special dish," Ashur said, stoking the fire with a branch. "It's called 'beggar fowling'. The story is, a long time ago in a faraway kingdom, there was a beggar who happened to come upon a fowling." He hesitated. "Ok, fine. He stole a fowling. Anyway, having no pot or utensil, he encased it in mud and baked it. Maybe he planned it; maybe it was dumb luck. In any case, it turned out to be delicious. A few years later, the dish was presented to the king, and he liked it so much, he summoned the beggar into his presence. So impressed by his creativity, the king rewarded him with considerable wealth and the beggar was able to live the rest of his life in comfort."

The story of a tale of ancient China, with the word 'chicken' replaced with 'fowling' of course. Ashur wasn't much of a storyteller but his family had little experience in term of entertainment so they were relatively captivated by the tale and was quite excited when he declared that the fowling was ready.

Ashur hesitated but decided to try something. He heard his mother gasped in horror when he reached his hand into the fire. In the next moment, the tongues of flames swirled around his fingers for a second before being absorbed.

The energy from the fire was negligible, but it proved his theory. Just as his nanites could emit energy, the flow could be reversed and they could absorb energy.

He said nothing to his gaping family. They had had no contact with technologies until him. Devin was a civilization fueled by Magic and Radiance; they were all his family knew. Explaining technologies, especially technologies as advanced as the Terran, would mean forcefully shifting their entire perspective of the universe in one go. A human mind might break under that kind of strain. It was better to let them make their own assumptions, saturated their lives with technologies, wait for them to accept it, and then explain everything.

It was like a frog in a pot of water. If the water was hot, it would jump out the moment you put it in, but if you put it in and slowly heat the water, it would bake without realizing. A morbid comparison but apt.

Ashur brushed the clay block clean of wood fragment. He split the block, and the clay shell fell away, taking the feathers with it. The aroma released made everyone's mouth watered. The fowling was everything Ashur's story promised and more. The fowling's meat was so tender that it all but fall apart in their hands. Most of the oil in its flesh had been forced out, while the juices in the fruits, having been contained within a closed shell, the heat and pressure had forced the juices out. The meat had then absorbed the juice, giving it a succulent sweetness that simply spilled onto the tongue when bitten.

His family couldn't eat the creature fast enough. Lia and Kanus were able to somewhat control themselves, but the fury with which Ana and Namus attacked the creature would give any Zerg a run for their money.

When the fowling was gone, Ashur's family was full but not even remotely satisfied. Smiling, he walked through the tent and sent out a mental command. The fabric in front of him shifted and parted, making an entrance. He also gave an order to the nanites in that particular section to part whenever one of his family members stood in front of them.

The interior of the tent was very spacious and segregated. Six different 'rooms' surrounded a main chamber through six entrance that would open and reseal itself to allow people access. The tent was all-encompassing so there was a layer of nanite-fabric over the ground; they wouldn't have to sleep on the dirt floor. The nanite-fabric was emitting light, keeping the interior of the tent softly lit.

Ashur initially planned for each of them to have a room of their own, but his mother refused, demanding that they stayed together. Ashur didn't argue. While the people of Devin revered Magic, the common people also feared it; it was very similar to how the people of medieval time on Earth treat religion. The creation of the tent was all but mystical to them, and they were a bit nervous to be in it. His mother wanted to keep them together for reassurance.

Since they were going to share the same section, Ashur dissolved the separating fabric, turning the inside of the tent into one massive area. With the separating fabric gone, they were able to see the four 'windows' of the tent. The windows were large patches where the nanites had become transparent. The vision through the windows were very good; the patches were more translucent the cleanest of glass.

With nothing else to do, Ashur dimmed the light and everyone settled down and prepared for sleep. Ana and Namus spent a few minutes looking through the windows at the wood outside. They were in a foreign area and everything was a novelty to them. Ashur didn't see a reason to stop them, and Lia didn't mind since they were within sight.

Ashur chose a spot at random and lied down. The ground had been perfectly flattened by the nanites and the fabric molded itself to fit the shape of anyone lying on them, automatically supporting just the right spot, making them more comfortable then the most advanced mattresses on Earth.

They had had quite a long day so even Namus and Ana didn't stay up for too long. They nestled against their mother and father, and everyone quickly fell into slumber.

Deep into the night, Ashur was awakened by a signal only he could hear. He sat up and glanced at his family before leaving the tent without making a sound.

Outside, a figure was waiting for him. It was a young woman with long brown hair and stood at five foot six. She looked every part of a dainty teenager saved for the fact that she was standing alone in a night at the edge of a clearing in the middle of nowhere.

She showed no fear. She showed nothing. Her expression were without any emotion, as cold as steel.

"Whoa." Ashur flinched the moment he saw her.

Her appearance did not catch him by surprise. He knew she was there. What surprised him was the fact that she was completely naked. He knew what she was; he knew she wasn't human. He also knew that she would obey any and every order he gave, and he was very tempted to take advantage of that fact. Human or not all the parts were there, and they were all perky and flawless. His enhanced sight, which allowed him to see flawlessly in the dark, could detect no flaw anywhere on her glorious, petite body. She was perfection incarnate.

Still, it would be wrong, or would it?

In a moment, his nanite-enhanced mind asked that question a billion times.

"Commander," the woman said, her voice cold, almost robotic.

He sighed. "Could you…" He couldn't finish the request. It was almost painful.

Still, she understood his thought. Her skin rippled ever so slightly and a black, sleeve-less outfit formed over her body.

Ashur sighed again, thought a bit wistfully this time. He examined her again. She was the weapon he had ordered his nanites to construct, the most advance technology that the Terran was capable of, something that did not exist in the game. She was a creation of pure nanites who had linked together into a matrix capable of unimaginable power. Her might was only limited by the amount of Quantum Energy he allotted her. Give her a million or two and she could crush a god outright.

She was a Quantum Avatar.

The Quantum Avatars were the royal guards of the entire civilization; they were meant to be the personal bodyguards and aides to the Terran's Supreme Commander.

Even without any Quantum Energy in her reserve, the petite teenager was still lethal, a remorseless machine who would follow Ashur's orders to the letter.

Though Ashur's Earth self, Sky, had been Chinese, he had been captivated by American television, and thanks to the internet, he was able to gain access to a great many television shows and movies. It was thank to them that his score had never been lower than a five in any of his English classes (Chinese grading scale consisted of number instead of letter with five being the highest and two being failing). He was especially enthralled by American's science-fiction culture. All the _Stargates_ series, _Andromeda_, _Firefly_, a good chunk of the _Star Trek_ franchise, and so on.

Though, physiologically, the Quantum Avatars were closer to the _Stargate Atlantis_' depiction of the Replicators, according to the database, their personality was closer to that of Terminators. As such, Ashur had modeled his first Quantum Avatar after a terminator, specifically, the T-900 model depicted by Summer Glau in _The Sarah Connor Chronicles_.

He even gave the Quantum Avatar the same designation: Cameron.

He suddenly felt a touch of glee. He had his own terminator. It was every geek's wet dream.

"Ashur?" Lia said from behind him, stepping out of the tent. She froze when she saw Cameron's dark figure.

"Mother," Ashur said, turning to look at her.

"Who's…" she began but didn't finish. There was something about the woman. She was too still, almost inhumanly so. It made her nervous. Too many strange things had happened this day. She felt a little lost.

"This is Cameron," Ashur said. "She is my personal assistant and protector." He turned to Cameron. "She was also supposed to be Vina's salvation."

"Supposed to be?"

"They abandoned us, mother. It's only fair that I expend the same courtesy." He turned to Cameron. "Go get us some provision: fruits, vegetables, maybe a Fiend."

It seemed that evolution was about balance. Just as the humans of Devin had learned to wield the power of Radiance and Magic, the animals of this world had evolved to give their species a fighting chance. In the written history of Devin, there had been records of a type of wild beasts known as Fiends who rule the forests of the planet; they were the nobles of the beast race. To a one, they all possessed supernatural abilities; a few even possessed near apocalyptic power.

"Yes, commander," Cameron said and disappeared into the night with a fluid grace that no machine should possessed.

"Are you still my son?" Lia whispered. She was so afraid of the answer that she held her breath. He felt like her son but since his resurrection, he had felt a bit far away. When she looked at him, she felt as though he was one of the stars in the night sky, that he belonged up there, staring down at this mortal world.

Ashur hugged his mother. "I am of your flesh and of your blood. Nothing can change that."

It took a moment for his words to sink in, but once it did, she nearly cried in relief. She didn't want to lose her son; no mother did. She did not resist when he led her back into the tent.

"Go back to sleep, mother. You have had a long day," he whispered.

Lia didn't argue. She lay down next to her daughter and husband and closed her eyes. Within two breaths she was out.

The rest of the night was uneventful.

In the morning, when they rose and stepped from the tent, Cameron was waiting for them, standing motionless like an ever vigilant sentinel. On the ground between them was a massive creature. It looked like a fury bull with the head that resembled that of a wolf and six legs. His eyes analyzed the creature and revealed a considerable amount of energy. Next to the creature was a massive silvery sack filled with several dozen kinds of fruits. The sack was made of nanites-fabric.

Like him, the Quantum Avatars were capable of absorbing the ambiance energy in the atmosphere and convert it to Quantum Energy. They could also command their nanites to produce virtually anything. It made Ashur felt that his existence was somewhat superfluous beyond the creation of Cameron.

"A Fiend," Ashur muttered and turned to Cameron. "You take everything literally, don't you?"

His statement last night had been in jest but Cameron had gone out and killed a Fiend. From the record of the battle, the Fiend didn't even have a chance. Cameron had transformed her right hand and forearm into a large blade and plunged it into the creature's head. She had been standing directly in front of the Fiend and yet her speed was such that the creature didn't even have time to react. It was a considerable testament to the might of a Quantum Avatar. The weakest Fiend was as strong as a high level Elite.

"She killed a Fiend?" Lia breathed.

For commoners, a Fiend was death incarnate. That Ashur's supposed protector killed one was shocking.

"She's not just a little girl, mother," Ashur said.

Lia breathing trembled slightly. Behind her, Kanus looked just as worried and more than a bit nervous. Namus and Ana, on the other hand, were fascinated by the creature before their tent. Ana was running her hand through the beast's fur, mesmerized by the sensation.

Ashur's parent spent breakfast in relatively shock silent. He prepared them a breakfast of mostly fruit. He knew that a breakfast of meat was not all that good for a digestion, but the flesh of a Fiend was quite a special treat. Though he had no experience with Fiend, it was not difficult to analyze the creature's structure and chose the softest, easiest to digest section of meat. He simply roasted the flesh, using a spark of Quantum Energy to disintegrate what little tendons and sinews there, making it even more tender and easy to digest.

The next two days were the laziest Ashur had ever had. When they were living with his birth father, both him and his mother had been worked like animals. Things improved when they fled to Vina but not by much. Peasant life was anything but easy, labors were plentiful. Hunting, foraging, cleaning and dressing your kill, food preservation, hide tanning, repairs to the village's battlement or your own house were required virtually every other day, for every job you finished, there seemed to be three more waiting for you.

There was no chore in the grove. The nanite-tent was self-cleaning and self-repair. Cameron could get them more food than they could use. Until he gathered enough energy for a Command Center, there wasn't anything to do.

He spent the first day weaving clothes for his family since they left all their worldly possessions in Vina. Devin's fashion was remarkable similar that of the medieval western world of Earth: mostly poofy clothes, pants for men, dressed for women. This was mainly due to the fact that commoner couldn't really afford personal tailor, and peasants mostly only have basic tailoring skill. As such peasant clothes were mostly one size fit all.

Ashur had his nanites wove half dozen outfits for each of his family member. He wanted something futuristic so he made the suits to resemble the outfits in the movie _TRON: Legacy_; one-piece suit made of a leather-like synthetic polymer with luminous bands that highlighted the structure of the outfit. He had a few alterations to maximized comfort.

Of course, the suits he commissioned were more than fabric stitched together. Each of the suit was a very advanced piece of technologies. They were tough enough to stand up to even the Marine's Gauss Rifle, at least for a short time. The suit could also maintain a stable temperature and was self-cleaning. It would also allow interfacing with other computers through touch. The suit also act as a key, granting the wearer access to the various Terran complex and technologies.

For his father and brother, he ordered a few nanite-fabric long coats to be worn over the suit. For his mother and sister, he ordered cloaks. This would add an additional layer of protection for his family.

His younger siblings seemed fascinated by the zippers in their new clothes; they both spent half an hour just zipping and unzipping their outfit.

Once that was finished, there was nothing to do. Ana and Namus amused themselves easily enough, climbing tree, racing each other, even playing hide-and-seek. Ashur found it a bit interesting that this particular game also existed on Devin, but then, it was a simple game without any equipment needed.

Ashur's parents divided their time between watching their children and taking walked around the grove. Any remotely dangerous wildlife had been removed by Cameron, making the grove the safest place for miles. Leisure time was quite a novelty for them.

Their days of peace were interrupted on the third day when Cameron spotted a sizable force moving toward Vina. Ashur guessed that they were the Blood Talon. He was more than willing to ignore them but he made the mistake of mentioning it to his mother.

"We have to help them," Lia said. They were in their tent. Ashur had limited his family to the clearing until the Blood Talon leave. His parents did not argue.

"I don't think we do," Ashur responded.

"Ashur, they will all be killed."

"Oh, don't be so pessimistic mother. I'm sure the Blood Talon will take many of them as slaves. One or two might even escape."

Lia gaped at him. "How could you be so heartless?"

"I'm not heartless, mother. I am petty and vengeful, there's a difference."

A moment of silent passed before she said, "You weren't like this…before."

"Of course I was. Situation like this just didn't occurred. Do you have any idea how many times I've dream about killing every man, woman, and child in my birth father's house? I promise you, if I have had the chance, I would not hesitate."

Lia inhaled deeply, conceding his point, before returning to her original argument. "You have to save Vina."

"Mother—"

"Please," Lia said, cutting him off, "for me."

Ashur grimaced. He really didn't want to assist Vina. Part of him even wanted to go to the village and watch them die. Still, as pissed as he was about the village, he couldn't deny a direct request from his mother.

"Fine," Ashur said through his teeth. He stood up and stepped toward the entrance of the tent. "I'll seal the clearing. It shouldn't take too long."

With Cameron by his side, he left the grove and headed for Vina. As much as he would like to take a languished pace and simply tell his mother that he got there too late, but he didn't want to let her down.

Still, by the time they arrived, the battle was in full swing. Using the wooden wall of the village, Vina was doing a decent job of defending itself. Of course, by Ashur's calculation, Vina's defense would only be able to hold out for about half an hour—twenty-four to twenty-six minutes to be exact. The villagers were like inexperienced runners, starting strong right out of the gate but leaving no reserve for the rest of the race. He couldn't really blame them though, they were fighting for their lives; there wasn't really a point in holding anything back.

"Go on," Ashur said to Cameron.

"Yes, commander," Cameron said and shot forward.

A few of the bandits saw her coming and was more than a little surprise to see such a beautiful teenager running toward them. Dozens of them turned to meet her, licking their lips as she drew closer. They had no plan to kill her; to a one, they were already imagining her naked beneath them.

Cameron gave no reaction to the lewd looks in their eyes. The moment she reached them, her right hand and forehand instantaneously transformed into a blade. Cameron dashed forward, ducked down, and swept out with her blade. The three men standing within the reach of her blade were immediately sliced into six parts.

She flipped over the next men. As she was inverted above him, her blade reached down and split his upper body into two. As she landed, her left hand reached out, fingers curling into hooks. A claw-hand latched onto the throat of one bandit. A twist and his neck severed with a crack that could not be heard in the tumult of the battle. With a flick of her arm, she hurled the body at the nearby bandits, boring them to the ground, and she cut their throats as she flashed by.

Ashur watched her from afar. He didn't have the time to full look at her programming so he was a bit surprised. He had expected her style of fighting to be similar to that the Replicators, a strong-arm tactic where she simply ignored the attacks aimed at her, depending upon her all-but-indestructible nanite body to absorb attacks, focusing everything on attacking.

Instead, she was using martial-art, a style all her own. Left claw-hand worked in conjunction right blade-arm. She pushed, pulled, and sometimes hurled bandits into each other's weapons. At the same time, her blade reached out, slipping through any and every opening the bandits presented to part flesh and sever bones.

To his eyes, it looked as though she was dancing. Though she was surrounded on all sides, no one could touch her, a figure of grace amid a field of chaos. He knew that her path was the result of millions upon millions of calculations per second. Analyses, calculations, predictions, all melding into a path of least resistance, a path that carried her through the battlefield, oftentimes dodging blades coming at her by mere centimeters. As she flowed through the battlefield, her blade-arm reached out to harvest the lives around her. Within ten minutes, a hundred men had fallen before her.

From within the Blood Talon horde, a large man with more facial hair than any man should have and not nearly enough hair on his head barreled toward Cameron, knocking down anyone in his path, oftentimes stepping on his own men to get to get to the petite teenager cutting a bloody path through the battlefield. A dark red bubble of radiance exploded from his body. It was a Radiance barrier, the mark of a Master.

When he was three steps from her, Cameron turned. Her blade-arm shot toward the man. The nano-edge blade punched straight through the dark red barrier and pierced the man's heart.

Cameron did not add the man's look of shock into her calculation. She simply pulled her blade from his body and turned to the next target. That the man was a Master was irrelevant. She did not know his name or why he chose to lead a group of bandits when he could have easily gotten a noble title and even a city of his own.

She cared neither for him nor this kingdom. She cared not for nobles or peasants. All she cared about was her Commander's order. By the order of the Supreme Commander, all members of the Blood Talons were her targets, Master or otherwise.

The killing continued. With the fall of their leader, the blood talon's morale sank like a stone and the death rate surged. Another fifteen minutes passed and half the Blood Talon was dead. The ground was soaked and still Cameron showed no sign of stopping. She would never stop, not until the mission she finished the mission she was given.

When another one hundred and fifty fell, what remained the Blood Talon turned and fled. Cameron made to pursue them but Ashur called her back. The rest of the Blood Talons were irrelevant to him. They had save Vina as his mother asked. If the remnant of the bandits returned and burned the village once they were gone, all the better. Next time, he would keep his mouth shut and not say anything to his mother.

With Cameron by his side, Ashur walked to the gate of Vina. Under his silent command, Cameron cut apart the wooden gate. Climbing through the opening, Ashur glanced at the villagers. They tittered around him, keeping their distance, seemingly unsure of whether or not to train their weapons at him.

He stood before them without saying a word. He had save them as his mother had requested and given the option, he would have made the same decision. Still, part of him regretted saving them.

His silent weighted upon the villagers. They grew uneasy, and agitated.

"I had wanted to leave all of you to die," he said. "I was going to head into the city, get some wine, and toasted the destruction of this village, maybe dance a little over your ashes. It petty, I know, but there it is. Unfortunately, my mother, in her boundless mercy, had requested that I save you, and so I have." His tone turned cold. "I assure you, it will not happen again. Now, I wished to retrieve a few affects from my house. While they are little, they possess significant sentimental values to my parents. Some of you have probably taken some items from my home. You will return them, or I will send her to retrieve it." He indicated Cameron. "I promise you, she will not be nice about it."

He did not wait for their response and headed straight for his former home. The villagers made a path for them. As he walked past them, he saw that a few of them look chastised, and some had regret on their faces. He didn't care. Their decision had severed their ties with his family, and their chance to go with him to the stars.

_Author's Message: This is another plug of my book. I'll be doing this every couple of chapters. Please try to suppress your annoyance, and buy my book. The links are in my author's profile__. Please tell your friends, family, coworkers, and/or strangers you meet on the street._


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: The First Towel**

When he came back, Ashur said nothing about Vina or the battle. Though he did not regret what he did, it still irked him that he had to save them, and it bothered him that it bothered him. Despite what they did, Ashur had to admit that they didn't deserved to die, so why were their lives so meaningless to him? Neither Ashur nor Sky was the kind of people, so why was he?

Did the nanites in his blood turned him callous? More machine-like? The thought worried him, until he remembered a quote from one of his favorite character, Captain Malcolm Reynolds of the star ship Serenity. "I look out for me and mine. That doesn't include you unless I conjure it does."

He may be fictional but he was a great man. His philosophies were pretty decent to live by. It was a moment of pseudo-enlightenment for Ashur, and he put Vina out of his mind.

The next day, Ashur decided to try something that he had been putting off, restoring his father's arm. Kanus had lost his arm protecting him. To Ashur, that had always been a scar. If Ashur hadn't been careless that day, Kanus wouldn't have lost his arm.

Ashur knew that his nanites could fix his arm, but he had been hesitating. It was a problem of confidence. Despite the fact that he was the Terran's Supreme Commander with complete access to the entire civilization, he was still affected by Sky's consciousness. By Earth's scientific standard, growing an arm was science-fiction. Rejection, mutations, so many thing could go wrong.

It wasn't until he saw Cameron in battle that he decided to proceed. The Quantum Avatar was a work of art, in every sense of the word. He refused to believe that a civilization advanced enough to build something like her couldn't properly grow something as simple as a human arm.

And so, his family looked on in amazement as Kanus 'grew' a new arm. It was actually quite disgusting, which fascinated Namus, and Ana saw the entire thing as a display of Magic, which further enamored her to him. Afterward, she looked at him with a wonder and reverence of a devoted zealot.

Ten days after the battle of Vina, Ashur, with Cameron's help, finally saved up enough Quantum Energy for his first command center. After moving his tent a little way into the trees, he dropped a nanite 'egg' in the middle of the clearing.

Within the next three days, a tower appeared, filling the clearing and more, displacing many trees. The tower was glossy and black as though it was made of ebony glass. Bands of light streaked the outer surface, highlighting its features.

It was the Ashur first Command Center. He had redesigned its appearance, using the style of the Ancient from the _Stargate: Atlantis_ television series with a few features from the _Tron: Legacy_ movie mixed in.

It did not improve the function of the Command Center; he couldn't even if he wanted to. Each of the preloaded designs in the Database was a masterpiece, all but impossible to improve upon, at least with Ashur's current abilities. The alterations were simply aesthetic preferences. It was one of the few gripes he had with the Terran from the Starcraft universe. The Terran was supposedly a super advanced technological civilization, he couldn't understand why so many of their buildings and units were so ass-ugly.

The worst of them, he had to say, was the Command Center. It was a round metallic dome like a turtle shell which had been randomly hit by a hammer so parts of it had slightly caved in. When it was upgraded into the Orbital Command, it looked even worse with satellite dishes sticking out of it. He couldn't understand what kind of style that was, American white-trash chic?

As grateful as he was to have the Terran at his command, he was very glad that it was possible for him to redesign the outer appearance of Terran technologies, for a price of course. A normal Command Center cost one thousand units of Quantum Energy. Redesigning it had increased its cost by twenty-five percents but it was worth it.

Building wise, he had always liked the style of the Ancient from the Stargate universe. As a matter of fact, one of his goals was to build Atlantis. The very thought of having a flying city made him tingled.

As such, his first Command Center became his first Command Tower, the first step to Atlantis, a seventy-story monolith with a base dimension of fifty yards by fifty yards. It was a massive complex with hundreds of living quarters with their own individual bathrooms, several mess halls and dining chambers, a dozen communal chambers, a multiple indoor pools and a massive indoor garden.

The garden was a special request of Ashur. Lira was located in the relatively deep north of Devin so the winters were long and harsh. As such, more delicate plants such as flowers were extremely rare. Ashur had ordered it to be filled with flowers whose color complimented each others, whose scents were most compatible. He even had a little waterfall that filled a small pool which in turned fed a small brook that flowed through the chamber.

The Command Tower also contained a computer core and a multitude of construction chambers and bio lab that were used to create a multitude of machineries and synthesize any organic substance the civilization could need. The resource for these construction were obtained through the Quantum Converters, one of the most vital technologies of the entire civilization, one that allowed the Terran to convert Quantum Energy into any raw resources they needed

Traveled through the complex were accomplished through a dozen glass elevators reminiscent of the one in _Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory_, able to move not only vertically but also horizontally and to make turns. The interior of the tower was not as fixed as Earth's building. Walls shifted and retract, forming opening to allow the elevators passage. Entire room could move, divided and combined to fit any need.

Despite the technologies of the Terran, the Tower was not perfect. The Teleporters were not functional; teleporting technologies were not available until stage two. Worse than that, the Gate Room that Ashur had commission was simply an empty chamber. There was no design for a Stargate in the Terran's Database, and he so wanted a Stargate.

Regardless of its flaws, the view from the Tower's balcony was beyond amazing. The tallest trees were beneath his feet, and he could see as far as the horizon. It was mesmerizing and it quickly became Ashur's favorite spot.

As the Tower rose, seemingly from the ground, his family had watched in wonder and, in the case of his parents, no little amount of fear. They could not overcome their fear of Magic, or what they considered to be Magic, even if it was wielded by their own son.

Though the Tower was a far better home, his parents chose to remain in the tent, and his siblings stayed with them the first few days. His sister was the first to move into the Tower. She had heard stories of Wizard's towers before. To be able to live in one was a dream come true. When she discovered the gleaming marble bathrooms that were attached to the living quarters and the clean ivory bathtub within, she couldn't be dragged out of the Tower. Her first bath, she stayed in the bathroom for three hours. Ashur was afraid that she had drowned in the tub if not for the fact that her vital signs were as strong as ever. Even his mother went into the Tower every day. As uneasy as she was in the building, the lure of indoor plumbing and hot baths were irresistible.

As for his other family member, his brother moved into the Tower after he discovered culinary possibilities in the Tower.

Though it was possible for every piece of technologies in the Terran civilization to be built in the Tower, because it did not had the specialized machines, there was a significant increase in cost. The only two units that the Tower was designed to build were the SCVs, Androids, and Data Collectors—fly-like robots with the sole purpose of collecting information, a dozen of them could scan an elephant right down to the genetic level within a few minutes..

The Terran Androids greatly resembled that of the NS-5 from the movie _I-Robot_ starring Will Smith. These Androids would be the equivalent of the civilians of the Terran. They would the one in the various battle suits of the Terran, they would be the drivers for the vehicles, and the pilots for the planes and eventually spaceships. Though they were not sentient, their programming and personal processor were advance enough that they could learn to perform any task. With a direct connection to the Terran central computer network, they could do anything and do it well.

As Namus discovered, they were amazing cooks. At the same time as Ashur commissioned the first dozen Androids, he had also ordered the creation of several thousand Data Collectors.

Within forty-eight hours of their creations, the Data Collectors had scanned every plant, animal, and mineral within a hundred miles of the Tower. With a detailed scan of several dozen fruits, vegetables, and animals along with a comprehensive map of a human's taste buds, it was a simple thing for the central computer to come up with a hundred different dishes. As the saying went, "The short way to a man's heart was through his stomach," or something along that line, and from the very first meal, Namus' heart was captivated.

Within a week, his brother and sister had permanently moved into the Tower. His mother, on the other hand, stubbornly insisted on living in the tent, and as always, his father acquiesced to her desire and decided to keep her company.

Ashur left them be. Though the Tower possessed a far greater defensive capacity, there wasn't any threat in the immediate vicinity of the grove so they would be just as safe inside the tent as they would be in the Tower. Of course, just to be sure, he ordered a hundred Androids to keep guard around the grove, arming them with pulse pistols. From his calculation, one on one, it would take a Master to destroy an Android armed with dual pistols.

Of course, he could order the SCV to build Marines or Marauders suits. Unfortunately, this would increase the cost by a multiple of five. That meant that a Marine suit would cost two hundred and fifty, and a Marauder would cost a cool seven hundred and fifty. For the same price of a Marine suit, Ashur could create twenty five Androids. Twenty-five Androids could cover a lot more ground than a single Marine. As for simply building the weaponries of the Marines and Marauders, it would not be practical. Such weaponries boasted a much higher rate of fire and more power shots, which meant that the energy requirement was significantly higher. Conventionally, it was the suits that powered the weapons. Without the suits, the weapons' personal reserved would be depleted after twenty or so shot.

Still, he thought it would be best to build a Barrack as soon as possible. Fortunately, one of the Command Tower's main functions was the ability to absorb the ambience solar energy within ten miles and convert it into Quantum Energy. Considering Devin's proximity to the sun and their position on the planet, within a period of twenty-four hours, the Tower could absorb and convert roughly one hundred thousand Quantum Energies. It might sound like a lot, but he needed five hundred billions units of Quantum Energy to unlock stage two technologies. That meant that even if he saved every units of Quantum Energy, it would take him a little over thirteen thousand years.

He needed more Towers, a lot more, if he hoped to get to stage two within a year or two. Unfortunately, because the amount of ambience solar energy within a fixed area was finite, he had to spread the Towers across a very large area, as large as a kingdom, perhaps even an empire. Though he had no plan to wage any war, he had little doubt that the Terran would have to step onto the center stage of Devin in order to garner the required Quantum Energy in an acceptable timeframe. Once the various kings and emperors learned of the Terran's power, they would die of envy. He needed an army, not only to defend the Terran but also to protect his family.

As such, within a few days of the Tower's completion, Ashur ordered the construction of one thousand SCVs. In the game, the Terran's SCVs were squarish mechs walker about twenty feet tall whose arms were one pincer, one drill used for construction, resource collecting, and resource transportation. Ashur's SCVs were similar to the mechanical squid of _The Matrix_. The SCV consisted of a central sphere with one glowing optic sensors and eight steel tentacles whose tips could transform into any tool they would need for construction. Unlike in the game, Ashur's SCV were fully automated; one only needed to upload the necessary spec to the Terran's computer network.

Unlike in the game, where a building could be constructed by a single SCV virtually out of thin air, it takes a small army to build any of the Terran structures. The resourse for the Terran buildings were obtained from Command Tower, or Supply Depo if there was no Command Tower immediately available. In the game, the Supply Depo was a structure that raised the population cap. Ashur's Supply Depo was large Quantum Converter independent of the Tower. It was also capable of creating a substance call Nutrients Gel, a type of jelly that contained all the nutrients that a living creature need to survive. A serving of eight ounces contain two thousand calories and it could be made have any flavor or no flavor at all.

With an army of SCVs ready, Ashur ordered the construction of four smaller towers. They were situated to the north, south, east and west. These towers were connected to the main Tower through elevated walkways. Three of the towers the redesigned Barrack to the East, Factory to the west, and Starport to the north, each with their own Quantum Converter. As for the southern tower, Ashur reserved it as a storage tower, where he will keep the weaponries and suits where they were not in use.

At stage one, the suits Ashur had access to were all for terrestrial combat: Marines, Marauder, Firebats, Medics, Reapers, and Ghosts. For the next month, Ashur split his resources between building those suits, the Androids needed to operate the suits, enough Medivacs to transport them, and a number of Banshees sufficient to escort them.

Medivacs and Banshees were the only two air units he had access to at stage one. As for the vehicles, he had access to Hellions and Crucio Siege Tanks, but both types were best used in open warfare, not really something he was aiming for. In his situation, he felt that it would be wasteful to spend eight hundred Quantum Energies on a Siege Tank, especially since Siege Mode would not be available until stage two.

A month after the battle of Vina, Ashur was having lunch with his family in the garden level of the Tower. His mother and sister adored the garden so his family had taken to eating every meal there.

They were sitting around a table with pearly white linen. Upon the table was a feast worthy of any emperor, with a few dishes that wasn't so high-class, such as bacons. Of course, Ashur had to synthesize bacons in the Bio Lab. The first batch had the more unhealthy aspect, and certain fat and oil, removed, but it didn't taste right, so the second batch was flawless in all its 'unhealthy' perfection. Because of his will, the food that was bacon had reached across the stars.

"I have to leave for a few days," Ashur said, chewing on a bit of bacon.

Lia looked up from her soup. "Where are you going?"

"I have a little business in the Golden Scar," he said.

"What?" The spoon dropped from her hand, and next to her, Kanus froze. "That's suicide. You can't go there."

The Golden Scar was the wide desert five thousand miles wide, stretching from shore to shore, cutting the continent in two. According to legends, many thousand years ago, the gods of Devin went to war with each other. Each god, commanding the various species of Devin, declared a jihad on everyone else, each proclaiming their superiority. No one knew who won because all the gods disappeared. The results of their war were the extinction for many species, the fall of many civilizations, and the lost of uncountable knowledge. The most visible legacy of the god war, however, was the great desert known as the Golden Scar, a wound across the known world that could not be heal even by time.

After the god war, though the gods were gone, their followers did not stop. The surviving species wage war on each other, and humans lost big. The beastmen and elves forced the surviving humans of the war into the desert. Nearly ninety percents of the remaining human population did not survive the crossing. Those that did settled in the land of long winters. Thankfully, while the humans did not have the strength of the beastmen or the mystic aptitude of the elves, they could breed many offspring if they had a mind to, and the birth rate exceeded that of death. After millennia, kingdoms and empires rose. Through it all, the desert remained, a natural barrier that kept the species apart.

"I am not so easily harm by a little sands and sunlight, mother," Ashur said.

"Why do you have to go there?" she said.

"Time, mother," he said. "As things stand, my ascension, will take too long. I need a lot of power, and the heat and sunlight of the desert will give me that."

Lia stared at him. "Ascension?"

"I have a duty among the stars, a task I must complete. Where? I do not know, but I must get there within the next twenty years. Considering the sheer expanse of the heaven, I do not have much time. I have to ascend as quickly as possible and began my search."

Both of his parent stared at him in bewilderment and wonder, along with a touch of fear, always fear, the fear so many humans had when face with the unknown and oftentimes the divines.

The next day, two hundred Medivacs escorted by five hundred Banshees took to the sky, carrying eight hundred SCVs, five thousands Marines, fifteen hundred Marauders, one thousand Firebats, and the necessary raw material needed to construct a Supply Depo. It was the common protocol when establishing an expansion to construct a Supply Depo first and use the Quantum Converter within to convert enough material for a Command Tower. It was more efficient than carrying the massive amount of material necessary to build a Command Tower with you to a distance site.

From within one of the Medivacs, Cameron by his side, Ashur watched as his family stood at the base of the Tower to watch him go. Even from high above the trees, he could see his sister pouting. He had spent nearly an hour arguing with her that morning. When she saw the Medivac that morning and learned what its function was, she had cried, pleaded, and finally gave him the silent treatment all in an attempt to get him to take her flying in one of the 'magic birds'.

Unfortunately, he didn't have the time to accompany her, and as much as Ana loved Magic and flying, she wasn't willing to ride one by herself. Of course, even if she was willing, Lia would never allow it. And so, Ana's first foray into the sky would have to wait. Ashur couldn't very well take his sister into a desert for a week. It was, after all, more or less the abyss of Devin. Heaven only knew what was out there. He was taking considerable risk going himself.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Brave Knight On A Tall White…Medivac?**

The Medivacs fleet flew south. Ashur didn't really know about the outlay of the various sovereign states, kingdoms, and empires in the northland, but it didn't matter. There were rumors that the various Empire had managed domesticated a number of lesser Fiends capable of flight, forming their own airborne regiment, but he was certain that his Banshee were more than a match for any of them.

On Earth, helicopters were used even into twenty-first century because of their versatility and mobility. Banshees were the helicopter's Terran cousins from the future. Twin turbine wings allowed the banshees to hover or moved in any direction. The propulsion system allowed a maximum speed of five thousand miles per hour and their Sonic Canceller technology neutralized those pesky shockwaves they generated when they breached the sound barrier. The Banshee's armaments consisted of twin Backlash Missiles Launcher converted Quantum Energy into homing missiles and fired them six at a time at not only ground targets like in the game but also air targets.

A fleet of five hundreds could exterminate most armies on Devin while staying out of harm's way. With them by his side, the sky of Devin was his domain.

From the data Ashur managed to gather from Cameron's oh-so-short battle with a Master-class warrior, it would take fifty of him to match a Banshee's firepower. Of course, matching a Banshee's power and matching its speed were two entirely different things. It would take a Zerg, and Ashur really hoped that there weren't any of those around. The only thing on Devin that Ashur had encountered that could match a Banshee's speed was a Medivac.

The Terran Medivac, twenty yards in length and fifteen yards in width, also with a maximum speed of five thousand miles per hour, a large carrier fully equip with medical and mechanical equipment to repair or heal, as needed.

The fleet flew over four hours, traversing a distance of twenty-two thousand miles by Ashur's calculation, before the golden sands came into view. Considering the fact that the distance from pole to pole on Earth was just a little under twelve and a half thousand miles, Devin must be a considerably bigger. From the curvature of the horizons, Ashur calculated that Devin was about 62.7 times bigger than Earth. It was a considerable bigger playground than Earth but that only meant that there were more players on the board.

For the next few hours, the fleet flew around the desert. While the Golden Scar was extremely inhospitable, it didn't mean that it was untouched by humans. The Golden Scar was said to be the ultimate battlefield of the ancient god war. As such there were many legends of ruins in the sands, remnants of the gods' battlements filled with great power and knowledge, guarded by monstrosities left behind from the war.

There were also tales of artifacts, leftovers of weapons from the gods' divine armies, relics of great power beneath the burning sunlight, highly sought after my kings and nobles. The promises of wealth and power drew countless people into the desert. There were tales of success, gossips traded in the taverns beneath a haze of alcohol, but for every artifact discovered, there were thousands consumed by the sands, forgotten by time.

These adventurers would most likely discover his tower in time. Ashur wanted to delay this as much as possible. As such, he ordered his fleet into the deep desert, to a place farthest from any settlements that bordered the Golden Scar, human's or beastman's.

He found a place twelve thousand miles from the eastern coast. Within a week, a thousand tower rose from the sand, over ninety-five percents of them were Command Tower, the rest were Barracks, Factories, and Starports. Intermittently between the various towers, Ashur ordered the construction of hundreds of Turrets to defend his desert city.

The Turrets were one of the Terran's defensive structures. In the game, Turrets were designed for air defense, automatically firing a pair of longbolt missiles at any hostile targets in range. Ashur's Turret, on the other hand, was a rotating, four-barrel Quantum Chain Gun, with an extremely high rate of fire and bullets velocity capable of decimating air and ground targets.

The other defensive structure of the Terran was the Bunker, but Ashur did not order any built. The Bunker design of Ashur's Terran contained living quarter and a small medical and repair bay underground, beneath the above-ground bunker chamber. The Bunker could also produce Nutrient Gel. Whoever designed the Bunker seemed to have geared it for human's occupation. As things stood, his troops were best use to response to threats that a static defense could not cover and augment the defense as needed. It was more cost effective to just house them within the Towers.

With everything set, Ashur headed back on a Medivac with ten Marines, five Marauders, and five Firebats along with an escort of four Banshees. As always, Cameron was by his side. The Quantum Avatar was dedicated if nothing else.

As they were leaving the desert, the first snow of winter began to fall. From his analysis of the atmosphere, Ashur detected a massive winter storm. If they were still in the little shack in Vina, they would be in for a bit of trouble but now that his family was living in the Tower, it shouldn't be a problem. Every Terran structure was designed for the most extreme of condition. Short of living directly on the surface of the sun, they should be immune to any weather condition.

On their way back, Ashur decided to take a detour to the Lake of the Wild Embrace. Ashur had heard about the lake when he visited a tavern in Havus, the major city closest to Vina. Of course, closest meant a little over four hundred miles. Havus were where the people of Vina went to sell their kills, those they didn't keep for themselves, and buy supplies. Ashur had visited a few of the taverns there on his trips to the city. He liked taverns, not for the drinks though he imbibed alcohol like all hunter. What most attracted him to the taverns were the stories.

One of the stories was of a lake in the southeastern edge of the kingdom. The lake was famous among hunters because of the Lamving, a silver fish that could only be found in the lake. The fishes were said to be extremely delicious and was so sought after by the nobles of Devin that they were worth their weight in gold. Problem was, the Lake of the Wild Embrace was deep in the Haldus Forest, the largest forest in three kingdoms, spanning over fifteen hundred miles. To get to the lake, one would have to wade through hundreds of miles of forest swarming with Fiends.

Fortunately, this was not a concern for Ashur. Flight was a considerable advantage, allowing him to bypass the vast majority of Fiends. The rest could easily be taken care of by the Banshees.

They arrived at the lake with little trouble. The few flying Fiends they ran into had been swiftly neutralized. From above, Ashur could see where the lake got its namesake from. It was nestled against the base of a small mountain. From either side of the mountain, a chain of tall hills ran around the edge of the lake as though the mountain was reaching out with its arms to hold the body of water. By the time they reached the lake, the forest was white with snow.

The Medivac landed on the eastern edge of the lake and Ashur disembarked. Cameron, leading the remaining troops, quickly followed and took a defensive position around the spot. The primary directive of every machine in the Terran collective was to defend the Supreme Commander. As such, unless otherwise ordered, they would always form a defensive perimeter around him.

Ashur left them be. They were deep in Fiends territory; a defensive perimeter might not be a bad idea.

He held out his hand and the nanites inside him formed into threads. Extending from his fingers, they plunged into the lake and began searching like living creatures. The threads swam through the water, and wrapped themselves around three Lamving fishes, each weighing over ten pounds.

Just as the threads pulled the fishes out of the water, there was a rustling in the bushes. Ashur's infantries reacted immediately. They closed rank around him and leveled their weapons in the direction of the noise, forming a protective of steel and guns.

"Hold," Ashur ordered when three people burst out of the trees.

Leading the little group was a young woman, as old as Ashur, maybe even younger, with long blond hair. She was quite beautiful, possessing a feature as appealing as any movie star. She wore a light green dress that matched her eyes made of some very fine fabric. Ashur's nanite-enhanced sight revealed a very high thread count. On Devin, that meant a magically woven fabric, which meant a very powerful and wealthy noble family.

Flanking her was a man and a woman, both in their late twenties. The man was six feet two with broad shoulders and shoulder-length dark hair, wearing gleaming armors and wielding a sword almost as long as he was tall. The woman was considerably more slender with long dark hair, wearing a bright red robe. From the staff in her right hand, Ashur identified her as a wielder of magic.

From the levels of power Ashur was detecting, the woman's energy level was equal to that of the Master Warrior that led the Blood Talon. A Master Sorceress was a noble of considerable worth, even among the empires. For a kingdom like Devin, she wouldn't even have to bow to the king. As for the man, armors and sword suggested a warrior, which might make his status lower than the Sorceress but his energy level was higher. Problem was, his energy was fluctuating wildly. Ashur was a little surprise that he could still stand.

The three newcomers froze when they saw Ashur and his contingent. They all looked exhausted, and he could detect several injuries on each of them.

"I would advise against any sudden movement," Ashur said. He indicated the mechanized troops around him. "They're a bit sensitive when it comes to my safety."

He spoke the truth. At that moment, all the computer chips inside the androids were running full blast, processing every piece of data they could gather, analyzing the threat level of the new newcomers and the surrounding environment. The attack command was on stand-by, ready to trigger at the first sign of threat. If a machine were capable of being nervous, Ashur would say that they were nervous. Even Cameron had actually edged closer to him. It was actually kind of nice to be care for so much, even by machines that were programmed to.

The three hesitated, quickly trading hushed whispers. Ashur didn't make the effort to listen in but he caught a word. The older woman had called the younger one "Highness", which suggested that the young woman was royalty. In any case, they seemed unable to reach a decision.

The blond woman stepped forward, seemingly at the protest of the other two. "Who are you?"

"I am Ashur, Supreme Commander of the Terran."

"Terran?" the woman said.

Ashur indicated the metallic sentinels around him. "Them. And you are?"

Before the young woman could answer, the Sorceress cut in front of her, both physically and verbally. "Who hold your allegiance?"

"I don't know. My family?" Ashur said.

The Sorceress shook her head. "No, I meant to what kingdom do you swear your fealty?"

"None," Ashur said. "The Terran is a civilization in our own right. Upon this world, we stand independent."

The Sorceress glanced at the younger woman. Before either of them could ask another question, the bushes behind them rustled. The three froze. They turned to look into the trees and immediately moving away from their position, making a point to keep their distance from Ashur.

Around him, the Terran forces moved accordingly, half moved their weapons in tandem with the three's movements, keeping them targeted; the other half trained their weapons in the direction of the new disturbance.

From the trees, a group of nearly twenty men emerged, quickly surrounding all of them. The newcomers were a mixture of Warriors and Wizards. From their energy level, four them them were Master-class, one Wizard and three Warriors.

Ashur was a bit curious. From his understanding, a Master was a high-end power for a monarchy. To the various kingdoms of Devin, they were akin to battle carriers on Earth, and yet in the space of half an hour, he had seen six Masters. Was Fate running a special? Nine dollars for half a dozen?

"Well, well, little princess," one of the men said, stepping forward. He was young, about Ashur's age. He was not the most powerful of the group and yet there was a note of arrogance in his voice that grated on Ashur's nerve. "You gave us quite a runaround. Now be a good little girl and come with us. If you behave, maybe I won't give you to my soldiers."

"Wow," Ashur said. "He's not pleasant at all, is he?"

The Sorceress quickly muttered a spell and a shimmering dome encased her group along with Ashur's. Ashur's nanite sight recorded the syllable of the spell along with the corresponding reactions of the ambience energy around them and immediately began analyzing it. Shielding technologies wouldn't be available until stage two. Magic might proved to be a shortcut. Unfortunately, to make it efficient enough to be viable, he would need a lot more information.

The opposing group was not so concerned about such thing. The moment the barrier went up, they attacked. Weapons, gleaming with Radiance, hammered away at the barrier. A barrage of spells like fireworks washed over the dome, leaving multiples ripples upon the shimmering surface. Ashur recorded it all, Radiance and Magic alike, analyzing the two forces upon which civilizations of this planet was build.

"I formally request your assistance," the young woman said to Ashur.

"You're a princess," Ashur said.

"Uh…yes," she said.

"What kingdom?"

"What?"

"Of what kingdom are you a princess of?"

"Lira," she said.

Ashur grimaced.

"What?" she said.

"My mother and I had a very bad experience with one of your dukes. It didn't leave us much love for the ruling class of Lira."

"Will you help us then?"

"At the moment, I'm debating whether or not to kill you myself."

The Warrior immediately pulled the princess and the Sorceress away from Ashur's and his group, leveling his weapon at them. The moments seemed to have aggravated the fluctuation of his energy, and he tethered on his feet.

"Calm down," Ashur said. "It's simply a passing fancy. I will render assistance, or you could take your chance with them if you prefer." He gestured at the men attacking the barrier.

The three hesitated.

"You should decide quickly. By my calculation, the barrier has about thirty seconds at best." It wasn't until he finished his statement that he realized that the people of Devin probably didn't know what a 'second' was.

A few more moment of hesitations and whispered discussion before the three went to Ashur. The soldiers around him parted slightly to allow them passage, closing ranks around them afterward. They stood still, weapon raised, as the barrier weakened and began to waver. The moment the magical barrier vanished, the Terran opened fire.

The Terran's Gauss Rifles were not as loud as the guns of Earth. There was only a soft rhythmic popping as a hail of invisible energy bullets tore through the air and slammed into the attackers, tearing them apart before most of them could react.

Those fell by the marines had a few moments to be surprised as their lives faded. Those fired upon by the Marauders were not so fortunate. In the game, Marauders' armament consisted of Quad K12 "Punisher" Grenade Launchers. Ashur's Marauders, on the other hand, were equipped with a pair of Quantum Pulse Cannons on their arms. Whereas the rapid-fire Gauss Rifles seemed to be designed for fighting multiple targets, like say Zerglings, the Quantum Pulse Cannons seemed to be signed for battle against a single larger target. By Ashur's estimation, a single shot from the Pulse Cannon should be able to blast a panzer tank clear in two, a 'tank-buster' in every sense of the word. Against the attackers, a shot from the Pulse Cannon left nothing behind.

The battle lasted all of five seconds. Even Ashur was a tad surprised at how quickly the men were cut down. When faced with Master-class and below, it would seemed that the efficiency of a small battalions of Marines and Marauders far exceed even that of a Quantum Avatar.

While Ashur was a bit surprised, the three were beyond stunned.

"By the gods," the Sorceress whispered.

Ashur sighed. "All I wanted was some fish." When they stared at him in shock, he shrugged and turned. "Come on. This way," he said and began to lead them away.

The three did not follow him.

Ashur stopped after a few steps and turned to them. "The closest human settlement is at least a day travel from here, and that is under normal circumstances. This storm is going to get a lot worse. Admittedly, the Sorceress is powerful so you two may be able to survive the storm and the Fiend. He won't."

As though on cue, the man toppled and hit the snow covered ground with such force that even Ashur winced a little.

"By my analysis, he has about three hours. His only chance is with me, but do whatever you want."

"How do we know that you won't kill us in our sleep?" the Sorceress asked.

Ashur laughed once. "I'll give you the same terms that the immortal Captain Malcolm Reynolds would; if I do decide to kill you, you'll be awake, you'll be facing me, and you'll be armed."

He saw the women paling slightly and it was very difficult for him to stop smiling. Whatever else he was, the good Captain Reynolds does have some of the best one-liners.

There was another few moments of indecision before the princess said, "We'll go with you."

Ashur shrugged. "Whatever. Honestly, part of me was hoping you would take your chance with the storm; it would be a lot less trouble for me, but I suppose we are living in your kingdom so I do owe you something."

He gestured at the fallen Warrior and two Marines stepped forward after attaching their weapons to a couple of latches that formed on the backs of their suits. They stopped when the Sorceress raised her staff defensively.

"Do you prefer to carry him?" Ashur said.

A moment passed and the Sorceress lowered her staff. The Marines stepped forward and picked up the Warrior.

"What are your names anyway?" Ashur asked as he led them into the trees.

"I am Mina Avara, Eldest Princess of Lira. This is Lady Viana Kantesh and Lord Fenir Odia." She indicated first the Sorceress then the Warrior.

Ashur nodded in acknowledgement and led them toward his Medivac.

_Author's Notes: There had been repeated suggestion about me getting a beta reader, and I have tried. Unfortunately, the few I managed to contact through the site's beta reader list had been unwilling to take on an additional project so I thought I would ask you guys. If anyone is interested in becoming the beta reader for 'The Terran Legion' please contact me, and please keep in mind that grammar has always been my weak point._


	5. Letter to Readers

Dear readers and fans,

I suspect I might lose a couple of readers after this. Feel free to cuss me out but I am calling another mulligan, and scrapping this version of _The_ _Terran Legion._ I started _The Terran Legion_ with quite a bit of enthusiasm but no thoughts to the detail. _The Terran Legion_ was overly affected by _The Zerg Swarm_. It wasn't any big thing; just a bunch of small aspects. While this seemed fine to most, I didn't like the fact that the Terran story wasn't exactly standing on their own. As before, the Terran will return in a better version, I hope.

Until then, due to a few requests and the fact that _The Heart of the Swarm_ had stirred my juices, I will be beginning _The Zerg Swarm – Neo_.

Sorry for the false start,

East Bridge


End file.
